


A Sign I Love You

by macaroni_meangirls



Category: Mean Girls - Richmond/Benjamin/Fey
Genre: ASL, AU, F/F, Fluff, Sign Language, artist Janis, deaf Janis, mute Cady, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 04:14:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17953403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macaroni_meangirls/pseuds/macaroni_meangirls
Summary: Cady Heron doesn't talk. But Janis doesn't care.





	A Sign I Love You

Cady Heron doesn't talk.

Janis doesn't know if she's silent by choice, or mute, or just painfully shy. No one talks to Cady, and Cady certainly hasn't told her.

All she knows is that Cady Heron doesn't talk.

Ever.

Teachers have tried to bully her into talking, giving presentations. But Cady doesn't talk. Not when they yell, not when they threaten her with detention, not when they promise to fail her.

Cady Heron doesn't talk.

Shane Oman has shoved her down and kicked her in the ribs, called her horrible names, made her life hell. But Cady doesn't talk.

No matter what, Cady doesn't talk.

It only makes sense that they'd become friends.

After all, Janis went completely deaf at five years old from an illness that ravaged her body and left her in a soundless world.

So Cady's silence isn't much of an issue.

The only thing she's really missing is the ability to read her lips, and she can get along without that. Cady's good at miming out her actions. Their friendship is like a never-ending game of charades.

Janis, however, can talk, although she's been made fun of for her voice before. Her mom tells her she's too loud and maybe that's true. She wouldn't know. But Cady doesn't seem to mind at all.

She takes a seat at their "lunch table," a broken chair they sit their sandwiches on at lunch as they sit on the floor. No one wants to sit with the deaf girl and the mute.

Cady looks up, smiling, from the notebook in her lap. Knowing Cady, she's probably writing another song. "What's that?" she asks, hoping she's not shouting like she apparently was when she asked Cady if she had a spare tampon in the hallway.

Cady smiles wider, pushing the notebook over for Janis to read the lyrics. As Janis watches, waiting to see if a round of hand motions will follow the giving of the book, Cady levels her hand and drops it low to the ground, jerking it up and down slightly, as her other hand points to the book. The song has a lot of heavy bass. Cady smiles and taps Janis's nose, pointing directly at her heart and then motioning to her own ear. So you can "hear" it too.

Janis smiles widely, genuinely, the kind of smile only Cady can draw out of her. "Thank you so much, Caddie! I love music like this, I can almost hear it!"

Cady grins herself, pleased with her work. She motions at Janis's sketchbook, pressing her hands together and then opening them. Can I see what you're drawing?

Janis obliges, opening her sketchbook to the most recent page, a pencil sketch of two hands forming the ASL sign for love.

Cady picks up her cookie and gives it a shake, pointing to the sketchbook. Sweet.

"It's about ASL," Janis says with a shrug. "I learned it pretty young, I can barely remember being able to hear."

Cady nods thoughtfully before taking a massive bite out of her cookie, making Janis giggle at the expression of pure joy on her face.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the most part, Janis doesn't miss her hearing.

She barely remembers what it's like to hear. She's learned to live without it. Getting it back now would be strange.

But sometimes, she really, really wishes she could hear.

For example, when Shane Oman sneaks up behind her, planning to shove her inside a locker.

That would be a good time to have really excellent hearing.

But she doesn't, and she doesn't see it coming, doesn't even realize what's happening till she's halfway in the locker, and by then it's far too late.

She loses track of how long she lays trapped in the small, cramped, dark space. She's now down two of her five senses, and it's frightening to have no sense of her surroundings. No one will let her out. It's a Friday, she might be here all weekend. Tears drip down her cheeks, tears she can't hold back. She wants to get out, she has to get out, but no matter how hard she kicks at the door, the solid metal is unyielding.

This is it, no one is coming, no one will help. She should scream, maybe a teacher will hear, but she can't make her mouth move. Her vocal chords won't work.

Suddenly a thin crack of light splits the darkness, a tiny wedge of light. The crack widens more and more until Cady's soft, pale face, speckled with freckles, appears in the entrance, her eyes wide and face tense with concern. 

"Caddie..." Janis manages, more tears spilling over at the sight of her friend. Cady opens her arms and Janis falls into them, clinging to her tightly, not caring that she's crying in public, not caring that she's being laughed and jeered at. Cady hugs her firmly, leading her away towards the bathroom and sinking to the floor, letting Janis lay in her lap and sob. Cady's delicate fingers twist and braid little strands of Janis's dip-dyed hair as hot tears soak into her jeans. Janis shakes in her lap, shivering from relief and lingering terror.

Even when her tears dry and the shaking stops, neither of them moves.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Janis is waiting for the bus when a slim, auburn-haired figure approaches her. "Caddie?" she asks incredulously, blinking rapidly to make sure she's not hallucinating. "This isn't your stop, why are you-"

Cady lifts one finger, silencing Janis as effectively as cutting her off verbally would have. Then she shows her the book clutched in her arms.

The American Sign Language Extended Dictionary.

"Caddie," Janis attempts to murmur, although it probably comes out as more of a awkward half-shout. "What are you-?"

Cady raises her finger again, smiling softly. She slowly opens her hands, letting them curve into a set of delicate shapes.

"I...love...you..."

Janis leans back, stunned. She and Cady aren't "I love you" friends. They do, and they know they do, but they keep quiet about it. If Cady's going out of the way now to tell her, she really means it.

She lifts her own hands, signing carefully. "You know ASL?"

"I learned it. For you. Only a little now. More soon."

Janis nods, feeling herself warm up inside like a sparkler at the symbols. Cady learned ASL for her. Learned a whole new language to help her. But now she has questions, questions she feels the need to speak out loud, if anything to confirm the reality?

She swallows hard before starting to speak. "You - you love me?"

Yes.

"Like a friend...or..." Janis waits silently, holding her breath as she waits for Cady to respond. Does she - does she love Cady back? She's scared to ask herself that question, because if Cady loves her merely as a friend, Janis will never be able to rebound from even considering the possibility.

Cady smiles slightly before signing back. "Or."

And with one small sign, Janis's world is sent reeling.

Cady loves her. As more than a friend. Cady is in love with her.

And she's a little bit in love with Cady too.

Janis takes a deep breath. It'd be easier for her to sign this, less uncomfortable...it's not something she wants to say too loudly, to protect them both. But Cady probably won't have the ASL knowledge to understand.

Lowering her voice as best she can, Janis asks quietly, "Can I kiss you?"

Cady's eyes widen for a moment, but she nods enthusiastically, her eyes glowing with joy and excitement.

So Janis kisses her, her umbrella falling to the side, the pouring rain drenching them both to the bone. Janis doesn't feel the cold at all. A warm sensation is spreading from her heart through her body, fingers and toes, and she's never been warmer in her life as she is now, with her lips pressed to Cady's mouth.

The rain pours harder and water streams through Janis's hair, soaking her to the skin. She'll have a terrible cold tomorrow, but she's barely even aware of the water, because Cady's arms are around her neck and she's so soft and warm and beautiful, and the kiss only deepens as the rain falls harder.

Janis would be more than content to stand there in the rain, kissing Cady Heron for the rest of the day, but she's still sixteen, and high school still exists, and far too soon the grimy yellow bus pulls up, showering them in water and forcing them apart.

She and Cady smile hesitantly at each other, hand in hand, as they clamber aboard the bus. As they settle into their seats, Cady motions first to Janis, then herself, ending with a heart sign made from two hands. "You love me too?"

Janis signs back quickly. "I do."

The school bus isn't the place for another kiss, but Cady gives her one anyway.


End file.
